1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a line of sight detection apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-085905, filed Mar. 27, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an apparatus which detects the line of sight of a vehicle driver based on, for example, a retinal reflection image, a corneal reaction image, and a pictorial image of the face of the vehicle driver is known (e.g., refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H08-297019).
In the abovementioned apparatus according to one example of the prior art, some calibration methods to calibrate the detected line of sight are known. For example, the calibration is operated by detecting the line of sight in a state of a driver gazes at a predetermined designated position, or by using calibration value which is statistically calculated beforehand from a plurality of physiques.
However, particular input operations or movements of the line of sight only for calibration are necessary for each new driver in order to calibrate a line of sight detection apparatus by the driver's gazing at the designated position. Therefore, when a plurality of drivers alternate, complicated procedures would be required since the calibration operation is needed for each alternation.
Furthermore, errors which occur in every driver cannot be reduced when calibrating by the calibration value which is statistically calculated.